Month: March 2004

Look, I’m mundane. Deal.

So there’s a winter storm watch in effect for tomorrow night through Wednesday. SIX TO EIGHT INCHES OF SNOW!

Words cannot express how much I am NOT thrilled. And I’m telling you, this just proves that there is a connection between Junior riding his bike and snow. Two Sundays ago he rode for the first time without training wheels and boom, snowed enough the next day to blanket the lawn (not so much the roads). And then white-out flurries on Friday.

So then he rode again this weekend because it warmed up and almost all the snow was melted… and now 6 to 8 inches are predicted. Actually, last night the Yahoo weather forecast had us down for snow on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Lord knows how much, but that’s beside the point.

On our way to Jordan’s Furniture to go to their Imax theater (yes, for you out-of-towners, it is in fact the coolest furniture store ever – unlike the Boston Museum of Science, this one has a concession stand. 3D movies AND movie popcorn…and the soda fountain serves Barq’s. It is nirvana) we heard the “concert alarm” for 104.5 so Mr. Dump and I dug out our cell phones and got dialing. All weekend if you were the right caller, you got Sting’s newest CD and a chance to win front row seats to his concert at the Orpheum tonight. I saw sting a whole bunch of years ago at the Centrum with my friend Dave and it was UNBELIEVABLE. I really really wanted these front row tickets.

So me on my T-Mobile, him on his AT&T – I only got busy signals and he was caller 6, 10 and 14! Cripes, does the phone company play favorites? So he won the free CD, but this morning someone else won the front row seats. I hope she goes, cause if those seats remain empty I’ll be one unhappy person.

Okay, one week later, he’s an amazing little bike rider! I promised you some video, so here it is. First is last week, when he still needed daddy to help him out, and the 2nd is from today, when he was basically riding as if he was born doing it. So odd, how it just clicks for them, and suddenly they aren’t wobbly or anything. Sure, his braking leaves something to be desired, but that’s why we brought him to the middle school parking lot where he could practice without worrying about cars, other people, etc.

biking.wmv – the first lessons and then

bike2.wmv

Tracked down the person and had a conversation and all is good. Man, did I ever feel like an ass for bringing the topic up. But it had to be done or I would have died from migraine-like headaches. Not cool.

[Editor – This eventually turns into a rant. You have been warned.]

I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper yesterday, but they won’t publish it unless I give them my phone number. They will then call me and say “Did you write blah blah blah” and I’ll say yes and then they can print it if they want. The thing is, by the time they got to asking me for my phone number, some of the steam had burned out of me, and now I’m wondering if I should let them publish the letter. I enjoy writing them, in the heat of the moment, but then 6 or 12 or 24 hours later, you start wondering if you really want your letter in the local paper. I was ranting at some brainless wonders who had attended a prayer service against gay marriage. What really set me off was a woman who said something brilliant about there being male and female animals. Well, ya. So what? There are male and female people. Your point? Well, her point was that they pair up that way. Interestingly, the Daily Show JUST did a segment on gay penguins two nights ago. It’s verified fact that some animals pick same-sex partners. My favorite exchange in the interview was

“Just because it happens in nature does not make it natural!”

“Uhhh…I think by definition, it actually does.”

Some [mumble mumble] they later talked to actually said that “this is just propaganda. If you can believe that these are gay penguins, you’re buying the gay agenda.”

Are you kidding me? It’s right there in front of his eyes, with no human intervention, and he’s saying it’s part of the gay agenda? This is like the joke about the guy in the flood who told rescuers in boats that God would save him, and when he dies and asks God why he didn’t save him, God said “I sent three boats!”

You can show these people hundreds of examples like this (the zookeeper mentioned seals and monkeys too) and they’ll be blind to it, because they refuse to see this as maybe, just maybe, that it’s not “a decision.”

Cripes. Sorry for the rant, but the Daily Show was too funny, and yet it ticked me off royally at the same time. And it goes perfectly with the “rally” they had in Fitchburg. *sigh*

Don’t. Just don’t. If you work in an office, for God’s sake, don’t. It’s not subtle, it’s not whatever you think it is. It reeks, and it invades my private air space and gives me a sinus headache.

Why you think you need to slather on perfume/aftershave/cologne is beyond me. You don’t. If you are hiding something, some medical condition that makes you smell like feet, we can talk. But it is my studied belief that people who smell like feet are not the ones wearing cologne. No, those folks continue to merrily smell like feet. The ones with the cologne problem say “Oh, I smoke, I need it so I don’t smell like cigarettes.” I have news for you. Unless you store your clothes in an ashtray, the smell of smoke doesn’t linger on you long enough for it to be an issue. And hey, I have another solution to your problem: quit smoking. Extend your life so you’ll live to see your kids grow up and get to meet your grandkids.

And in the meantime, cut the crap with the perfume, okay?